`Troubled` Pirelli contracted to supply tyres to F1 until end of 2016 season

London: Italian tyre company Pirelli will reportedly continue as Formula One`s tyre supplier for the next three seasons under a new contract.

Pirelli, which had a troubled 2013 following a series of problems with its tyres, has long complained that F1`s in-season testing ban prevented it from doing the necessary research. According to a leading channel, now contracted to supply F1 until the end of the 2016 season, Pirelli said in a statement that the new contract was signed because of changes to the rules, which have been made to allow limited in-season tyre testing from 2014. Pirelli further stated that it would continue to determine the specification of the tyres and to manage all aspects of their development, in close consultation with the FIA and the teams, and within the parameters set out in the FIA F1 sporting and technical regulations. The report mentioned that each F1 team is allowed to do eight days of in-season testing, and one of the 12 days of official pre- season testing will be dedicated exclusively to wet-tyre testing. Pirelli said that the lack of testing was a contributory factor in the series of failures that hit the company in the first half of 2013, which culminated in a series of calamities at the British Grand Prix , in which six drivers suffered major tyre failures, the report added.